


Anywhere You Go, Let Me Go Too

by evol_love



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Squip, F/F, Fluff, Pining, high school theater au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 06:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17720150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evol_love/pseuds/evol_love
Summary: Despite finally getting her dream role, Christine is struggling with Much Ado about Nothing rehearsals - specifically, her castmate Brooke Lohst. When she decides to charitably take her under her wing to run lines, however, Christine may find she's misjudged the other girl entirely.Written for Femslash February!





	Anywhere You Go, Let Me Go Too

**Author's Note:**

> Challenging myself to write a fic a week for Femslash February - let's see if I actually follow through on that one. 
> 
> Regardless, I accidentally got myself really into the idea of shipping these two despite a serious lack of fic like months and months ago, and finally I had an idea and a good motivator to write it. Huge thank you to Anna for cheering me on to write this goofy little fic for this goofy little ship, for inspiring me, and for chatting with me late into the night about what ridiculous shenanigans these kids might get up to. I hope you enjoy! The Jeremy/Michael is very much in the background but it /is/ very present in Christine's conversations with Jeremy. 
> 
> The title is, of course, from "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. Now is probably also a good time to mention that I worked very hard on characterizing Christine's interests and thought processes and etc. and that they are NOT necessarily reflective of my own likes/dislikes/thoughts/ideas...in fact they very rarely are. 
> 
> If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment to let me know! Thanks!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at mlbevan :)

**Monday**

Christine flops dramatically onto Jeremy’s lap, startling an “oof” out of the boy. He’s sitting crosslegged in one of the aisles of the theater rather than sitting in one of the auditorium seats themselves, vaguely working on homework while the other actors run a scene he isn’t in onstage. 

“She’s driving me _crazy,_ ” Christine groans in lieu of a greeting. “Was Mr. Reyes _high_ when he cast her?”

“Come on, she’s probably just nervous. We can’t all be _you,_ Miss ‘I’ve-been-every-lead-since-first-grade.’”

“Kindergarten,” she corrects him as she sits up, distracted as Mr. Reyes calls for them to start the scene again. 

“Good Ursula, wake up my cousin Beatrice, and, um, um, desire her to rise,” Brooke says onstage. Her nerves are apparent, her speech shaky. Christine rolls her eyes and flops back over Jeremy.

“Be nice,” Jeremy says, stroking her hair mindlessly. “Wait, Christine, aren’t you _in_ this scene?”

Christine sighs. “In theory. Brooke’s stumbling over her lines so much that I doubt my entrance will be for another twenty minutes. I was waiting backstage for my cue, but I couldn’t stand to watch her fumbling all over the place from the wings for one more second.” Jeremy pushes her off of his lap and she rolls a little before sitting up to look at him indignantly. “Look, I know you think I’m being a diva, and maybe I am, but I’ve wanted to play Beatrice since I was seven and I finally get to do it and the show is a _mess._ No offense. You’re doing great.” Jeremy snorts a laugh. “And Jake is _fine_ as Benedick, like, he’s funny, he _definitely_ has grasped the cocky asshole thing even though I’m not sure how much of that is even acting, but Hero has to be _perfect_ or she’s totally boring and Brooke is just so not there.”

Jeremy pats her on the shoulder. “I know you just want the show to be the best it can be. We all do. But we still have two weeks til the show, we can do a lot in that time.”

“I guess.” Christine feels pouty. She knows she’s being kind of ridiculous, and it’s not like she can really _do_ anything to make Brooke better (she’s tried), but it’s frustrating nonetheless. 

Jeremy sets his homework aside and looks at her seriously. 

“Look, you’re in pretty much every scene she’s in. If you’re really worried about her, try running lines with her. She’d probably be grateful for the help.”

“You’re right! And maybe I can help train her out of her weird deliveries while I’m at it!” Jeremy looks alarmed at this but says nothing. “Too far?” Jeremy shrugs.

“Maybe a little.”

Christine deflates, but she nods and gets up to go back to waiting backstage. “You’re right,” she repeats. “Thanks, Jeremy.”

He smiles, genuine. “Any time.”

**Tuesday**

Sticking her script in her mouth for temporary safe keeping while she pulls her hair into a sloppy half up/half down ponytail, Christine nods at Brooke to continue with her lines. After a moment, She recites uncertainly, “Then we go near her, that her ear lose nothing of the false sweet bait that we lay for it. _.._ um...NO! No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful; I know her spirits are as...as...shoot, I know it, hang on...”

“As coy and wild as haggerds of the rock,” Christine tells her, removing the script from her mouth and opening back to the page they were working on. Though they’re in most of their scenes together, she and Brooke actually have very few moments of dialogue together, so she’s reading Ursula’s part to cue Brooke. 

“Coy, ugh, I totally knew that one.” Brooke seems genuinely crestfallen at the dropped line, and Christine can’t help but feel for her. She’s flubbed her fair share of lines, of course, it’s part of the business. 

“That’s the worst,” Christine agrees easily, feeling incredibly virtuous in how charitable she’s being. “I hate when I study a line over and over again and I feel so solid on it and then when I actually rehearse, I totally draw a blank.”

“Exactly!” Brooke agrees, brightening at the prospect of solidarity. “I’m like literally losing sleep staying up all night memorizing my lines. I’m so scared I’m gonna let everyone down,” she says, laughing nervously. 

Okay. So Christine might feel a little bad for judging Brooke so harshly. But she _is_ still pretty bad at her lines, so she doesn’t have to feel _that_ bad. 

“You’re doing a great job,” she hears herself saying. “Is this your first show?”

“Pretty much,” Brooke says, nodding. “I did this summer camp when I was younger where we did like, medleys of Broadway songs, but that’s about it.” She looks a little sheepish, she’s definitely blushing, but Christine thinks it’s sweet.

“Oh, you like musicals?” she asks. _This_ she can connect with.

Brooke absolutely beams. “Kind of—I love _Phantom of the Opera_.”

“Oh my god me too!” Christine squeals. She grabs Brooke’s hands excitedly, squeezing them as Brooke giggles. 

“I’ve seen the movie, like, a thousand times,” Brooke goes on. “It’s just so beautiful.”

“Emmy Rossummmmmm,” Christine gushes. “And the faintest hint of Ramin Karimloo.”

“Everyone in that movie is ridiculously hot.” Brooke looks more comfortable than Christine has seen her over the entire rehearsal period for _Much Ado_ ; it’s a good look on her. Her cheeks are pink but her grin is wide, eyes sparkling as she screws up her face happily. 

“I knowwwwww,” Christine agrees, fanning herself to make a point. Brooke’s laughter in response is very gratifying. 

Brooke looks down, still flushed. “It probably sounds silly, but that’s kind of why I auditioned for this play. I’ve always loved _Phantom of the Opera_ but I’m really not a singer, like, at all, so I knew I was never going to get to be in it, but I still thought maybe I’d try my hand at theater.” She wrinkles her nose at that and shakes her head. “That probably sounds really silly to you.”

“Not at all.” 

This is. Bizarre. Christine didn’t think she had anything in common with perfect popular pretty blonde Brooke at all, but suddenly, it’s like she understands her completely. 

Brooke gives her a weak smile. “Thanks. You’ve been so nice to me through all of this. It’s a little intimidating, you know, working with someone as, like, professional as you.”

...Christine might swoon just a little at that. She’s only human. 

“Hey, practice makes perfect, right? First shows are so exciting, I’m a little jealous. I wish I could have my first play again.” She closes her script. “So, are there other musicals you like?”

Brooke shrugs. “I liked _Hairspray._ ”

“What about _Chicago?_ ” Brooke frowns and Christine’s jaw drops. “You haven’t seen _Chicago_?” she demands. Brooke shakes her head, looking a bit panicked. “Oh, we’re watching that immediately. What other gaps are there in your education? What haven’t you seen?”

“Gosh, I don’t know, I haven’t really seen that many musicals at all.”

“ _West Side Story_?”

“No.”

“ _Les Mis_?”

“Nope.”

“ _Grease_?”

“Oh, I saw that years ago, but I think I liked it?”

“Oh my gosh, forget running lines, you’re coming over to watch a movie with me. This is gonna be so much fun,” Christine beams. 

**Wednesday**

As it turns out, a healthy refresher course on _Grease_ was exactly what they needed, because their costume fitting on Wednesday might as well be rejects from that very set. 

As Hero, Brooke is in a sweet little polka dotted 50s dress and cardigan, supplying her own little white sneakers and some accessories Christine is fairly certain aren’t period-appropriate but are fun all the same. Christine’s Beatrice ensemble is a little more post-film Sandy, a dark pair of leggings, heels, and a hot pink jacket. 

“Oh my goddddd,” Christine laughs as Jeremy comes into the room to talk to the costumer. He’s in a letterman sweater and jeans looking absolutely adorable and honestly not that different from his normal self. He fidgets with the cuffs of his sweater sleeves as he looks over the girls’ costumes. 

“You look awesome,” Jeremy tells her. “Jake’s got a cool leather jacket.”

“Of course, he’s my Danny Zuko.” 

“Wrong show,” Brooke cuts in. “Don’t make me panic and think I have to learn all new lines.” Christine cracks up as she fusses with her costume pieces in the mirror, making sure everything looks perfect before she starts changing back into her stripy sweater and overalls. 

“Oh, jeez, Chris,” Jeremy stutters, quickly putting a hand over his eyes as she gets dressed. Christine rolls her eyes. 

“Jeremy, you are the last person on earth I am worried about in the dressing room.” 

When she emerges from the head hole in her sweater, she sees Brooke shyly eyeing Jeremy in his very fitted sweater. 

“You look cute in your costume, Claudio,” she teases. He turns bright red and stammers out a thank you, retreating from the dressing room entirely after a moment. 

“He’s so silly,” Christine says. 

“You two seem really close,” Brooke says warmly. 

“Yeah, he’s pretty much my best friend,” Christine agrees. “I mean, Michael’s _his_ best friend of course, that’s a given, I wouldn’t even _try_ to compete with that, but we hang out.”

“He seems really nice.”

“He is! Michael’s great too, have you met him?”

“Once I think—he runs tech, right?”

“That’s Michael!” Christine finishes fastening her overalls and is confronted with the reality of Brooke in a flouncy dress and pearl necklace. She hasn’t done her hair yet, since this is just a fitting, but Christine can just imagine her hair done up in soft curls falling over her shoulders. She really will look the part of sweet, angelic Hero on opening night. 

Brooke peers at herself in the mirror. 

“What do you think?” she asks. Christine finds that, suddenly, there’s more than one answer, and they aren’t all answers Christine is ready to confess. 

“You look perfect,” she tells her simply. Brooke smiles at her.

“Help me unzip? These old dresses have the fussiest zippers, I swear it took me like twenty minutes to get into it.”

“Totally, who _knows_ how long some of these vintage pieces have been backstage here.” Christine steps behind Brooke (and is maybe a little glad to hide behind her instead of seeing her in the mirror) and brushes her hair over her shoulder to get at the zipper. She pulls it slowly, wriggling it in its track as it gets stuck a few times along the way. “There you go,” she says, surprised at how out of breath she sounds to herself.

“Thanks.” Brooke steps out of the dress and Christine wrenches her eyes away quickly. 

Okay. So this might be a Thing. 

Since she’s already dressed, and rehearsal is over, she decides to go find Jeremy. He’s slumped against a brick wall near the exit door, presumably waiting for Michael to finish shutting down the tech booth for the night to give him a ride home. 

“Hey,” she greets him. When he looks up, she adds in a rush, “I need advice.”

Jeremy frowns, sticking his phone in his pocket. “Sure, is everything okay?”

“So, you’re gay, right,” she says, not a question. 

“UHM?” Jeremy squawks, but Christine waves a hand dismissively. 

“Shush, you know I don’t care. I need _help._ It’s Brooke.”

“Christine, I’m not gay,” Jeremy protests. 

“Okay, fair enough, my bad, I shouldn’t have just assumed. It’s cool, I’m bi too!” She hadn’t realized she and Jeremy had so much in common, and now she almost regrets not spending more time getting to make bi puns with her bestie. 

Jeremy, though, looks like he might cry. Which. Isn’t great. 

“I’m...how did...I didn’t tell you that yet. I was going to, I was totally going to, I just, I wanted to figure some stuff out first?” 

“Honey, I know you and Michael are dating, I didn’t think you were _straight_ ,” she scoffs. Jeremy, on the other hand, looks even more scared and confused. 

“ _What?”_

Christine looks at him for a long moment. He appears to be trying and failing to continue speaking, unable to say anything at all. 

“I’m not dating...” Jeremy trails off. What follows could only be described as a Face Journey. It’s actually incredible to behold, Jeremy cycling through about five different emotional phases in the span of about twenty seconds. “Oh my god.”

Christine pats him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry Jeremy, I really thought...it just seemed so obvious.”

Jeremy swallows, looking like he may cry yet. “Great.” His voice is watery.

“Jeremy, hey, no, don’t be so dramatic,” she tuts. “Michael _totally_ likes you. Like, likes you likes you. A Lot.” She sighs. “Look, I’m sorry I just accidentally forced a revelation about crushing on your best friend on you, and we can come back to that, but can we focus for a moment? I’m having an emergency.”

Jeremy seems to shake himself back into focus, looking at her and nodding. “Okay. Now what?”

“I totally have a crush on Brooke,” she spills, unable to keep it in for another second. It feels good to get off her chest; the moment she says it, everything seems to fit perfectly into place. Of course she likes Brooke. Brooke is pretty and funny and lets Christine make lists of musicals for the two of them to watch together without any complaint. She has shiny blonde hair and wears ridiculously oversized sweaters that she burrows into and Christine wants to kiss her temples and sing ballads to her. It just makes sense. 

This is lost on Jeremy, who looks hopeless as ever. “But I thought you _hated_ Brooke.”

Christine smiles fondly at him. “Oh Jeremy. Do try and keep up.”

**Thursday**

Once Christine realizes she likes Brooke, she _really_ likes Brooke. Initials doodled in hearts, dreamy sighs, completely transparent Galinda/Elphaba fan fiction...all her usual hallmarks of crushing are present. She decides to start wearing sweaters in Brooke’s favorite colors because she knows they’ll make Brooke smile. This plan pays off immediately when Brooke asks to touch Christine’s sweater at the beginning of rehearsal, as it’s notably soft, and Christine nearly swoons. 

Even rehearsal itself has evolved. Now, instead of complaining to Jeremy, Christine hangs out with Brooke when they aren't onstage. They run lines together, or sometimes just gossip about their cast mates and friends, or even gush about _Phantom_ and other musicals Christine is insisting Brooke listen to. The other actors usually try to do their homework between scenes, but Christine has always felt too jumpy and excited to focus on academia when she's in the theater. Brooke seems to get that. 

They're sitting together in the fifth row whispering animatedly about _The Music Man_ when Jeremy comes to join them, looking pale. 

“What's wrong?” Christine asks quietly. Brooke is frowning in concern and Christine is inexplicably annoyed with Jeremy for making Brooke worry. 

“Do you think Michael and Rich might be? You know...” 

Christine and Brooke turn around in unison to see Michael and Rich laughing together in the tech booth. Christine purses her lips. 

“I don't know Jeremy, but I doubt it. Michael and _Rich_? I just don't see it. What do they even have in common? Besides _you_ ,” she teases, poking his arm. Jeremy rolls his eyes. “Seriously!”

“You're saying that they might start dating because they're both friends with me? Because that seriously sucks.”

Christine glances at Brooke, who is silent but clearly interested in the conversation, before continuing slowly, “...you know Rich had like, a _huge_ crush on you last year, right?” 

Jeremy somehow manages to verbalize the typing convention of slamming your hands down onto the keyboard before spluttering, “ _What?!”_

“I thought everyone knew that. We totally thought he was going to ask you out after the final performance during _Fiddler On the Roof_. I think he _said_ he was going to ask you out.”

“How do you know _everything_ about my romantic life before I do.” He's not even asking, it's more defeat mixed with incredulity. 

“You're missing the point,” she says dismissively. “What I'm _saying_ is that Rich used to really like you, and _Michael_ really likes you.” Jeremy looks unconvinced. “Jeremy, they're not going to start dating each other when at least one of them is hung up on someone else. That's you, if that wasn't clear.” 

“Oh! Does Jeremy like Michael?” Brooke asks happily, prompting Jeremy to shush her quickly and glance back at the tech booth nervously. “That’s awesome!”

So, Brooke is at _least_ an ally, that’s good. Christine can work with that. She was an ally too, once. She watched Glee on Netflix and had a little button proclaiming “I’m a friend!” on her backpack, and had even put duct tape over her mouth on Day of Silence. Somewhere along the way though, she'd realized that Oh Actually Girls Are Really Hot. (She’d also realized that Day of Silence was kind of stupid.)

Christine is musing over whether or not to buy more and more obvious bisexual pride merchandise in the hopes of Brooke noticing it when Jeremy confesses, “Okay, yeah, I do, but it's not a big deal.” Christine smacks his shoulder. 

“Of _course_ it's a big deal! It's exciting!”

Brooke looks down at her shoes, quiet in a way that says she's thinking through what to say. Christine makes eye contact with Jeremy and raises her eyebrows. Jeremy shrugs. 

“It's really cool that you're, like. Gay and stuff,” Brooke says at last. Her cheeks are pink and Christine wants to run her thumb over them, feel that flushed skin herself. 

“And stuff,” Jeremy says lightly. “I'm bi, actually.” He takes a deep breath. “I? I don't think I've actually said that out loud before.” 

Brooke smiles at him. It takes Christine’s breath away. She wants Brooke to be smiling at her like that, but also she's totally fine with this if it means she can just look at her forever. 

“I think I am too,” Brooke says at last. “I've never had gay friends before, so. I've never said that out loud either.” 

“OH,” Christine hears herself exclaim loudly. Jeremy and Brooke turn to look at her. Because he's a traitor and Christine hates him, Jeremy is clearly trying not to laugh. “That's great!” she adds, leaping up from her seat because suddenly sitting still seems absolutely impossible. “That you like girls, I mean! Or at least, I think that's what you meant but you actually never explicitly said that so for all I know you meant something else entirely! Wouldn't that be embarrassing? Oh my god,” she continues, laughing. “All I'm saying is that I like girls and I think it's really cool that you do too. Right?” She feels _winded_ after all of that. 

Brooke giggles. “Yeah, I like girls too.” 

Christine has listened to upwards of 75 musicals in her lifetime. She still thinks those words from Brooke are probably the best sounds she's ever heard. 

“Good,” she says with a smile. She bumps Brooke’s knee with her own. “Good.”

“Good,” Brooke agrees. She sighs happily. Then she leans over and rests her head on Christine’s shoulder, nestling up against Christine’s neck, Christine’s hair tickling her face, Brooke’s breath gentle in Christine’s ear. Her heart is pounding a mile a minute, harder than it ever has when Christine has gotten up to give a monologue or take the spotlight. Christine has never had stagefright. But this? With Brooke? She might finally understand what that feeling is. 

**Friday**

Objectively, Christine knows that she should be focused on creating small bits of business onstage rather than watching the action when she’s in the background of a scene, but during non-tech rehearsals, she kind of can’t help herself. She loves this, the whole process. She loves seeing words on a page come alive, the names in the script turning into fully 3D flesh and blood people walking around, inhabiting a space and a role. Seeing her castmates interact as characters and not just as themselves is the most magical thing in the world. Besides, they’re rehearsing in their masks now for the party scene, and you can get away with a hell of a lot in a mask. 

Brooke’s in her typical uniform of leggings and a drapey cardigan, which somehow both clash and totally work with her glittery pink mask. She’s smiling softly at Dustin, who’s playing Don Pedro, crossing downstage with him and not even looking down for a landmark of where to stop onstage like she used to at rehearsals. Christine feels unreasonably proud of her. 

“Lady, will you walk about with your friend?” Dustin asks as they reach their destination downstage. 

Brooke beams at him, and though the house lights not quite as bright as the stage lights, she’s vibrant all the same. “So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.” Christine can’t breathe. 

“With me in your company?”

“I may say so, when I please.”

“And when please you to say so?”

“When I like your favour; for God defend the lute should be like the case!”

“My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.”

“Why, then, your visor should be thatched,” Brooke says with a laugh.

“Speak low, if you speak love,” Dustin replies, and Christine _aches._ Dustin puts a hand on the small of Brooke’s back and guides her further upstage left, and the two pretend to continue their conversation as the scene moves on. Christine is so transfixed watching them that the hissed, “Hey, Christine!” feels like it comes from an entirely different planet. 

“Oh! Will you not tell me who told you so?” she covers quickly, and she and Jake are able to settle into their banter quite easily after that. The boys take over the scene and she moves back upstage, more than a little mortified at having totally blown a cue in front of everyone. 

The scene ends, and Mr. Reyes calls a Hot Pocket break that makes everyone roll their eyes and immediately take out their phones to see what’s happening in the world outside the theater. Brooke runs right over to Christine. 

“I listened to _Cabaret_!” she exclaims. All thoughts of flubs and failures evaporate from Christine’s mind immediately. 

“Oh my gosh, what did you think?”

“It was _amazing_ , oh my god, ‘Don’t Tell Mama’ was my favorite. Actually, no, ‘Two Ladies.’ No, ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me.’ Oh gosh, I don’t know, it was just...magical.”

“It is,” Christine agrees, feeling a helpless smile spread across her face. Just like that, Christine knows she’s totally, completely gone for this girl. This girl who understands Christine’s love of musicals like no one ever has before, who even listens to the ones she recommends on her own, who loves theater and works hard to get it right and even when she isn’t perfect, has more heart than anyone else onstage. “Hey, Brooke?” 

“Yeah?”

She thinks about it. She really does. She thinks about telling Brooke how she feels, pouring her heart out with no spotlight or audience or applause to show for it. 

Instead, she says, “That was a really good run. You seem really solid on your lines now.”

“Thanks!” Brooke says happily. “It’s all thanks to you running lines with me, I’d be so lost without you.”

 _I’d be lost without you, too_ she thinks. 

“Can I ask you something?” Brooke asks shyly, startling Christine’s imagination into overdrive. She knows she just missed what could have been a Moment, but maybe _this_ is their moment? Maybe Brooke feels this thing between them too, and she’ll be the one to make the first move and sweep Christine off her feet. Is she going to ask Christine if she can kiss her? Right here in the theater? Of course, Christine is not remotely opposed to their first kiss being onstage in the high school theater, it’s practically her favorite place in the world, but suddenly she’s not totally sure if she’s ready.

“Yes. yes, of course,” she says. Her breathing is noticeably heavier, good grief. 

“Am I just totally sucking up there? I mean, I have no real idea what I’m doing here, I’ve never done this before, and you’re a total pro.” Brooke is looking at her so earnestly, like she sincerely cares about Christine’s answer. And even though the question is something of a let down after letting her mind take flight, Christine finds she can’t bring herself to let _Brooke_ down. 

“Not at all! Oh my gosh, you’re doing so great. You could definitely stand to think through the intention of your lines a little more and let that inform your physicality, but you sound great. And projection is always going to be a problem, that’s always everyone’s biggest problem, but now that you’re really solid on your lines you can work on delivering them even louder and really selling it!” she says enthusiastically, hopeful that she’s straddling the line of constructive criticism and praise enough to buoy Brooke’s spirits. 

Brooke slumps in relief. “Thank you so much for saying that—that means so much coming from you, you don’t even know. I’ve been so in awe of you ever since I saw you in that play about Stella, it’s like coming to work with Britney Spears every day.”

“You saw _Streetcar_?” Christine asks incredulously. Brooke laughs, sheepish, scuffing her shoes on the stage.

“I saw it twice,” she admits. “I just thought it was so sad but so beautiful, you know?”

“I know,” Christine agrees. “Brooke, I think you might be my soulmate.”

“Oh my god, wait one second,” Brooke says, which is...not really what Christine had hoped for with that heartfelt confession. Nor had she hoped for Brooke to immediately take out her phone and start swiping at it frantically. 

“Uh, Brooke?” she asks. Brooke looks up, looking a little wild. 

“No, oh my god, I swear this is important,” she insists, then thrusts her phone in Christine’s face. “Look.”

There, on the screen, is Brooke’s contact listing for Christine in her phone. It reads, **Christine** followed by a heart eyes emoji, a pink sparkly heart emoji, a rose emoji, a comedy and drama mask emoji, a star emoji, a microphone emoji, a crying emoji, and a red heart emoji. 

“See?” Brooke asks hopefully. 

Christine looks back at her. 

“Does this mean...”

“I like you too!” Brooke says happily. Christine sighs in relief. 

“Oh, thank god!” she laughs. “I was getting worried there!” She almost moves to get closer to Brooke, then hesitates. “Can I hug you?”

“Yeah,” Brooke says. But she doesn’t even wait for Christine, closing the gap between them and pulling Christine close. She’s a little taller than Christine, especially in her heels, and Christine finds her head fits perfectly curled up to Brooke’s chest. 

“I can hear your heart,” Christine says, willing herself to not think too much about _Spring Awakening_ and make it weird. 

“What is it saying?”

“It says...that you’re happy,” Christine settles on.

“I _am_ happy,” she says, pulling back but taking one of Christine’s hands in her own. “Would you want to get frozen yogurt after rehearsal?”

Christine smiles. “I’d love that.”

“Hey, Jeremy!” Brooke calls over Christine’s shoulder, and Christine turns to see the boy crossing the stage behind them. 

“Oh, hey,” he says uncertainly, his eyes sliding down to see their joined hands. “Oh jeez, am I gonna have to put up with you two teaming up against me now?” he groans. 

“That depends...have you asked out Michael yet?” Brooke asks, and god, Christine could kiss her. 

She totally _could_ actually kiss her. Wow. 

“Stoppppp,” Jeremy whines. Then, with a glance to the tech booth to make sure Michael isn’t somehow listening in from the back of the theater, he adds, “I wasn’t gonna talk to him about it until the show ended. I don’t want stuff to be weird if he’s in charge of my mic.”

“Fair enough,” Christine allows. Her recent good fortune has made her incredibly generous. 

“Hey. I’m happy for you,” Jeremy says seriously, looking between the two of them again. “I don’t love that this means you’re going to gang up to force me to watch _Phantom of the Opera_ , but I’m happy for you.”

“ _YOU’VE NEVER SEEN PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?!”_ Brooke and Christine shriek in unison, just as Mr. Reyes comes back into the theater. 

“Alright people, places for act two, scene one, let’s run it again!” he yells, clapping his hands and calling the cast back to order. 

“Break a leg,” Christine says, squeezing Brooke’s hand before releasing it and exiting the stage. Brooke runs right after her. 

“We enter together,” she reminds her. 

“Together,” Christine agrees. She looks across the stage to see Jeremy in the wings on the other side. He gives her a subtle thumbs up, which she returns. 

“‘So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away,’” Brooke recites under her breath, running her lines yet again. 

“‘With me in your company?’” Christine cues her. She may or may not have memorized the full show, it’s not important. 

“Yes,” Brooke says. 

“That’s not..it’s ‘I may say so, when I please,’” Christine corrects patiently. 

“I know,” Brooke whispers back. “I was saying yes to _you._ ”

“Okay,” Mr. Reyes yells from the front row, as Christine’s heart hammers and Brooke kisses her quickly on the cheek. “Let’s take it from the top!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please leave a kudos and/or a comment to let me know! 
> 
> Happy Femslash February!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at mlbevan.


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